Gaming device manufacturers strive to make gaming devices that provide as much enjoyment and excitement as possible. Providing a secondary or bonus game in which a player has an opportunity to win potentially large awards or credits in addition to the awards associated with the primary or base game of the gaming device is one way to enhance player enjoyment and excitement.
Gaming devices having bonus games generally employ a triggering event that occurs during the base game. The triggering event temporarily stalls or halts the base game play and enables a player to enter a second, different game, which is the bonus game. The player plays the bonus game, likely receives an award and returns to the base game.
Gaming devices and bonus rounds of gaming devices generally provide positive responses to inputs such as a player's selection. That is, when a player makes a choice in a gaming device by pressing a button or using another input device, the game normally continues play or awards a value associated with the button or input device. The player keeps or wins that which the player chooses. One example of such a game is a video poker game. In a standard video poker game, for example, the game deals the player a plurality of cards, the player selects one or more desired cards and the game continues play with the selected cards.
In known bonus games, when the game or player chooses from a plurality of awards, the game discards, discontinues using or does not award that which the player does not choose. European Patent Application No. EP 0 945 837 A2 filed on Mar. 18, 1999 and assigned on its face to WMS Gaming, Inc. discloses a bonus scheme of this type. A player has one or more opportunities to choose masked bonus awards from a group of symbols displayed to the player. When the player chooses a masked symbol, the game removes the mask and either awards the player with a bonus value or terminates the bonus round. The outcome depends upon whether the player selects an award or a terminator. To increase excitement and enjoyment, the game may reveal the contents of unselected symbols, however, the values of the unselected symbols do not mathematically factor into the player's award.
A need exists to provide new selection games for gaming devices that enable a player to obtain awards based on picking one or more masked selections.